The Lioness

A Novel

By: Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by: January LaVoy, Grace Experience, Gabrielle De Cuir

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood starlet and her entourage in this riveting historical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.

"The best possible combination of Hemingway and Agatha Christie — a gorgeously written story about the landscape and risks of Africa, whose edge-of-your-seat plot makes it impossible to put down.”
—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeests crossing the Mara River, and herds of zebras storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous guests—including Katie’s best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the highly controversial film Tender Madness—will spend their days taking photos, and their evenings drinking chilled gin and tonics back at camp, as the local Tanzanian guides warm water for their baths. The wealthy Americans expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive.

What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding their hostages into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time. A blistering story of fame, race, love, and death set in a world on the cusp of great change, The Lioness is a vibrant masterpiece from one of our finest storytellers.

More Than One Lioness

Exciting, fast paced, and a page turner. A quick read with lots of action. I never predicted who instigated the tragic events that happened on this African safari.

The Lioness is a classic!

Chris Bohjalian had done it again; he's a wonderful author who knows how to tell a story and keep the reader mesmerized.
The narrators were exceptional! I could not put this book down.
I listened to the audiobook all day until I finished. Wonderful story!

Suspense

Good story and read well... Adventures on a safari that turn bad. Keeps you intrigued. Good variety of characters.

Unpredictable!!

Bohjalians books are always unique. You never know what you are going to get. I felt like I was on a safari and actually had to skip grizzly parts-but thats what I love about his books. Every detail is so researched and real. Great original plot.

Fair - average in every way

Sort of like a soap opera on the Serengeti with a little KGB and gun play mixed in. Nothing to see here.